Well, it’s that time again: Lent Madness started today, and it’s not too late to decide to play along. I’ll be lobbying for my favorite saints occasionally on my own blog, but figured I would mention it here to kick off the season. (And it’s not too late to vote in the first round — I’m supporting Macrina the Younger).

Although this is most definitely a light-hearted, even irreverent, activity, it also really is a Lenten devotion, as the Lent Madness Supreme Executive Committee explained with these beautiful words on Ash Wednesday:

We can learn much from those who have come before us as faithful witnesses to the Gospel. And they always seem to come back to this: “Love God, love neighbor.” Each one of these holy men and women did just that in their own time and in their own circumstances and they can inspire us to do the same in our own day. Like us, the saints weren’t perfect — but it’s freeing to remember that perfection isn’t the goal but faithfulness. Lent Madness helps make real these heroes of the faith by reminding us that they were living, breathing human beings not lifeless statues or distant figures immortalized yet immobilized in stained glass.